Hi Everyone

Marten from Sweden has just returned from his annual migration to Capetown. This year he headed North to experience speedkiting with a trip to the legendary “Ludritz” where its expected with anticiptaion that the 50 knot barrier will finnaly be broken and ratified later this year……

“Not long ago a group of us decided it was time to take a trip up to Ludritz in Namibia and find out what all the fuss was with Speed Kiting.

It was four Swedes who packed down the VW Golf to suspension breaking point. We left the lights of Cape Town behind us at 12 noon on Friday the other cars were a few hours behind us. A couple of tank stops and 1500km later we rolled into deepest darkest Ludritz, we had a little luck and found the hotel we were planning on staying in. Funnily enough the night porter seemed a little dazed and very surprised to see us, it was four in the morning thinking about it. Nice with a few hours sleep, breakfast was at nine.

We all woke early, not from the alarm clocks but from the exciting shouts from the other riders who just rolled up. They had a couple of bigger vans and were well rested due to the madrasses that they had laid in the back. After breakfast we packed the cars and let Sebastian Catelan take the lead up to the Lagoon, and man was it blowing! The parking was right down by the waters edge on the old dried up sea bed, it took some real effort to get the car doors open. Like I said the wind was howling when we were trying to get a little instruction on how and where we were going to be riding, I would have chosen a little less wind for my first time but we had come a long way and it was a case of ’just do it`.

Getting rigged was not that much fun, I laid my pump on the sand and it flew down the beach like it had grown an engine on the trip up here. We really had to bury everything down in the sand. I rigged my Ozone LightII 5m and took my new speed board under my arm and headed down to the water. Started with a few tacks up to the start area, a little nervous but I knew when the first lap was over I would just want more. Suddenly I remembered the special feeling which I have experienced so many times before when I competed in speed skiing, to travel at 200km/h on ski’s is close to going this fast on water. The water was around 5cm deep in the shallows and would definetly be felt if you crashed. We started in deep water (10-15cm) but when your going this fast it gets shallow real quick.

There was quite a few of us who made our way up here to get our first taste of speed kiteing, a big thank you shout to Sjoukje Bredenkamp and Sebastian Catelan for all their help and advice over the weekend. These two experienced riders showed us exactly what we should be doing and made it look easy. Even with my initial caution and kite choice I achieved an top speed of 42 knots, Sebastian was obviously the fastest with his 12m kite and 55 knots in 5cm deep water! There was a lot of crashes in the first day everyone was exhausted and hungry when we walked into the harbourside restaurant. After a long day with a truck load of wind we had nothing else to talk about except kite surfing, surprising enough?

I woke early on Sunday morning with an aching body, my legs felt like a pair of logs (after 2 months training in Cape Town?) it was going to take a while to get them going today so best to start early. We checked out from the hotel and headed up to the lagoon but the wind was weak at around 12m/s, Namibian weak that is. With promises that it should be increasing throughout the day, Sebastian suggested we head up to Ghost Town, literally a load of left over houses from the days of the diamond mines here.

Later we cruised back to the lagoon, our plan to test out the quiver of Ozone kites we had brought with us. I began again with the Ozone LightII 5m and now it felt like I could relax a bit and go for it. Later dug out my LightII 7m which I think fits a lot better to speed than waves this year. Lights from 2007 are much quicker and more of a C-kite design which I like better in the waves. After that it was time to test the 9m SportII and it really shows its power, now it started to get fun I can tell you. If I had an Edge II with me then it could only get faster and a lot wilder. We worked our way through quite a few boards and had a some really great hours on the water, it was probably a good thing that I didn’t have any bigger kites with me because now the temptation to ride real fast is alluring.

After a few weeks home in Sweden I’ve been riding a lot with the EdgeII and SportII 9’s and I can’t be without either of them. The SportII with its kinder and even torque while the EdgeII enjoying stabil/constant winds and really flying high and far. For waves I going to take the Sport II 7m this year because the feeling is just the way I like it. The new bar is a big plus, this year the chicken loop is really easy to get in and out of due to it holding its shape, if unhooked is your thing?

My goal this year is to get one of the Ozones over 45 knots this year, hope to see you on www.gps-kitesurfing.com

Mårten Björnsson”